Rats and Compost

Rats:

There are many myths about rats. Just to set the record straight: There are no rats as big as cats or such things as super rates and rats do not bite the faces of sleeping children for the fun of it!

Rats are mans enemy: in the 1300s, rats wiped out nearly one third of the European population. However, in many ways it is not the fault of the rat but of humankind. . Rats are tempted by traces of food that is all and we leave food lying about in the form of litter and dirt in our streets, houses and anywhere else that we are. Dropping a crisp bag on the street or leaving rubbish outside will bring rats to you door and into your house.

Just to put the record straight: Rats are a very serious health risk and can carry the following diseases;
0. Weil’s disease
0. Salmonella
0. Tuberculosis
0. Cryptosporidiosis
0. Ecolab
0. Foot and mouth disease
0. Leptospirosis
0. Virus things
0. Parasitic things
0. Rats are a vector for plague.

We are all to blame for the rats that roam our streets and live in our houses. The only way to get rid of them is too go back to bases and up our basic hygiene. Do not leave litter around. Dispose of food waste in a proper manner and do not use it on the compost heap because you are shore to get rats.

I do not put food waste on my compost heap and yet last year 2010 I caught 58 grown rats on my plot. This year to date; I have caught four.

I do not use poison because it is a cruel way to kill any thing and you are never quite sure what you are killing.

I believe and use the good old fashion rattrap. Now many people cannot catch rats with a trap but the secret, if there is one, is to use peanut butter on the trap so that the rat has to lick it off and in so doing will set the trap off and kill it in one clean snap.

Make sure that birds cannot get at the trap. I put mine under things like a paving slap leaning on a wall or in a large piece of pipe.

The increase of the rat population is a very worrying thing and it is about time that we all did something about it!